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The Missing Piece

Landon Donovan, No. 10 in silhouette, has not trained or played in a match since December, when the Los Angeles Galaxy won their second straight M.L.S. title.Credit
Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Martin Meissner/Associated Press

Landon Donovan’s self-imposed exile from soccer has often been described as unprecedented or unusual, but this is hardly true. There is a rich and compelling history of surprising celebrity sabbaticals, with a wide variety of outcomes.

Some stars return from their time off to tremendous success (Bob Dylan, the director Terrence Malick); others return to find that it might have been better if they had stayed away (the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the comedian Dave Chappelle). Still others, of course, do not really come back at all (J. D. Salinger).

In all likelihood, Donovan’s return will fall somewhere in the middle, not rising as high as Michael Jordan’s blistering resurgence nor falling as low as Bjorn Borg’s disaster. The common thread through nearly all of these unexpected breaks, including Donovan’s, is the public divide on whether the sabbatical is necessary, appropriate and worthwhile.

Certainly that schism exists here. As the United States national soccer team gathers in Colorado this week for the first of two critical World Cup qualifying matches, not all of the attention is on Friday’s game with Costa Rica or Tuesday’s at Mexico; instead, much of the focus is on Donovan, a player who is not even there.

Donovan has not played in a match, taken part in a practice or done any significant soccer activity since December, save for what looked to be an enjoyable pickup game with children on a recent trip to Cambodia.

To some, that departure feels like an abandonment, of both the United States team and the Los Angeles Galaxy, Donovan’s Major League Soccer club, which has begun its season without him. To others, it is a reasonable and necessary break for a player who was a part of the first full-time residential academy for American players in 1999 and has essentially helped the sport grow in this country ever since, in the process becoming the national team’s career leading scorer.

Whatever the spin, the reality is this: Donovan, 31, was determined to step back. He began seriously entertaining the notion of a break from soccer early in 2012, and Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena said his initial conversations with Donovan in May or June led him to wonder if Donovan would remain with the team for the entire season.

“He was really searching then,” Arena said. “I thought he might go. But he got through the year and, at that point, it was clear he was spent.”

Todd Dunivant, a teammate of Donovan’s with the Galaxy, said Donovan’s fatigue was obvious. “If he didn’t take the break, it would have been unhealthy,” Dunivant said. “It wasn’t just that his legs were tired. It was everything.”

After the season ended — with Donovan helping to lead the Galaxy to a second consecutive league title — Arena hoped Donovan would reconsider. But at dinner in January at Mangiamo, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Donovan and his agent, Richard Motzkin, told Arena that an extended break was necessary.

Arena, who is a former national team coach and has known Donovan since he was a teenager, did not hide his feelings. “I told him it was a bad plan,” Arena said in a recent interview. “I thought it was a bad idea. These are the challenges that professional athletes have. None of us get any breaks — coaches don’t get any. So I told him that. I respected his decision, but that’s how I felt.”

Nonetheless, Donovan, who declined a request to be interviewed for this article, slipped away from the public eye after that dinner, allowing himself what Motzkin described as a “decompression.” In addition to the physical and mental pressures of soccer, Donovan also divorced his wife, Bianca, in 2010. With soccer temporarily out of the picture, Donovan did things that “he hadn’t been able to do for the past 15 years,” Motzkin said.

He reconnected with family. He went to Maui for Dunivant’s bachelor party. He attended the weddings of several friends. He spoke to students at the University of Southern California. He took part in an event in Newtown, Conn., after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

He also walked his dogs, often, on the Strand in Manhattan Beach, simply enjoying the freedom that comes with not having another game or another practice or another tactical session in front of him. On one of those walks he saw Alexi Lalas, a former defender for the United States national team, who also lives in the beach area and who also took a break from the sport when he was 30.

Lalas could sympathize. Looking back at his decision, he said he took a year off “because I was fried.”

“If I was going to be any use to anyone, I needed to do it,” he added. He said he spent his time away driving across the country and, most important, “chasing a girl,” which, he added, “was great because she’s now my wife and we have two kids.”

Photo

Donovan was part of the first full-time residential academy for American players in 1999 and is now the national team’s career leading scorer.Credit
Todd Williamson/Invision for Time Warner Cable, via Associated Press

Given his own experiences, Lalas was of two minds on Donovan’s break, he said. On one hand, he empathized, noting that Donovan was “one of the first young players to come through and skip out on the college experience completely — that makes a difference.”

On the other hand, though, Lalas noted that Donovan’s absence from the national team could not come at a worse time. With a new coach in Jurgen Klinsmann, a lot of injuries and a difficult qualifying schedule, “I cannot think of a time when more is unsettled and undecided when it comes to the personnel and how the team wants to play; Landon is a part of that.”

Lalas added: “His teammates there can still be his friend — they know him so well. But from a soccer perspective, they can also say he let us down. There’s no question it does creep into the way you view him.”

Klinsmann has been reticent to elaborate on his thoughts on Donovan’s situation. As expected, he maintains that Donovan will be considered for the team if and when he returns to top playing form. But until then, he said Monday, Donovan “is not part of the plans because simply he is not playing and not training.” Asked if he would ever consider a personal appeal for Donovan to come back earlier, Klinsmann said no.

Donovan initially planned to extend his break until the middle of 2013. After discussions with Arena and Motzkin, among others, though, he revised his schedule. Barring a last-minute change, he is expected to make his first public appearance with the Galaxy early next week at the White House, when the team meets President Obama. He will then train with the Galaxy in the Washington area the next day.

Will he be ready for the Galaxy’s Concacaf Champions League semifinal in early April? Will Klinsmann call him in for the three World Cup qualifiers in June? To those close to Donovan, specific issues like those are less important than the larger concern of whether the time away makes an impact on his mental state.

Donovan’s fierce introspection, which can be a burden, is well known. Lalas, who played with Donovan and later was his general manager in Los Angeles and San Jose, said Donovan’s cerebral nature was a part of his talent. But Lalas also conceded, “There is an element, when it comes to Landon, where you just want to slap him in the face and say, hey, snap out of it.”

Arena, too, praised Donovan’s sense of responsibility, but added: “He’s constantly searching for utopia. And we all know you can’t find that.”

Motzkin said Donovan has every intention of earning his way back to the national team, and he reiterated that Donovan, despite being the face of American soccer for years, does not expect special treatment. Like everyone who takes a sabbatical, Donovan will surely face fallout from teammates and others affected by his absence, but all the years and effort he has given the national team should help smooth his return.

Kyle Martino, a former teammate who is now an analyst for NBC Sports, recalled the 2003 Confederations Cup in France, when a bomb threat forced the United States team to stay locked in its hotel. Donovan, Martino said, worked with the hotel staff and somehow arranged for the team to occupy a series of connecting rooms. He then opened all of the connecting doors and organized an Xbox video game tournament — Halo was the game of choice — which “turned the mood from us psyching ourselves out because of the scare to just relaxing,” Martino said.

“That was what he did, he’s an optimist and a pragmatist,” Martino added. “To be honest, I think he did life a little bit in reverse. He hadn’t switched off since he was 16, where most other guys didn’t start that life until their mid-20s. So now he needed this.”

In many ways, Donovan’s professional happiness may have come during his two loan spells in England’s Premier League, where he played with Everton in 2010 and 2012. Tim Cahill, a teammate at Everton who now plays with the Red Bulls in M.L.S., said he recalled Donovan being “free as a bird” in England and reveling in a situation that allowed him not to be the captain, not to be the team’s best player and not to be the perpetual focus.

One night, at the behest of Cahill and Phil Neville, Donovan and Edson Buddle, another American who was training with Everton, even broke into song for their Everton teammates at a restaurant. “I just remember his smile,” Cahill said. “He was happy. Whatever happens with this break, I hope he finds that happiness again.”

Dunivant, who has spoken with Donovan frequently, believes Donovan has done just that. “I’ve never seen him happier,” he said. “He’s in a better place, there’s no doubt. He’s relaxed.”

What that means from a soccer sensibility, of course, remains to be seen. When Jordan returned to basketball from his baseball break in 1995, it was as if he had never left. Ten years later, though, when the N.F.L. running back Ricky Williams returned from his walkabout in 2005, his career was never quite the same.

“I’m the first to say that when I first heard about it, my thought wasn’t, yes, that’s a wonderful idea,” Arena said. “But I have made peace with it, and in this case, with this player, it makes sense.

“Do I think, ultimately, that it will help Landon?” Arena added. “Yes, I do.”